Jean-Claude Juncker: Over the past years, Europe suffered the worst financial and economic crisis since World War II.


Jean-Claude Juncker,  President of the European Commission, EU-parlamentet 15 July 2014 

Unprecedented measures had to be taken by the EU institutions and national 
governments  to  stabilise  Member  States’  economies,  consolidate  public finances  and  prevent  the  results  of  decades  of  European  integration from  being undone.  

The  worst  was  avoided.  The  internal  market  and  the  integrity  of  the Euro zone were preserved.  Slowly but  surely, economic growth and confidence are  now returning to Europe.

However, the crisis  has taken its  toll.  More than 6 million people  lost their job during the  crisis.  Youth unemployment  has  reached  record high s. 

Several  of  our  Member States  are still far away from sustainable growth and  adequate  levels  of investment. 

In many countries, trust in the European project is at a historic low. 

The measures taken during the crisis  can be compared  to repairing a burning plane whilst  flying.  They  were  successful  overall.  

Yet  mistakes  were  made. There  was  a lack of social fairness.  Democratic legitimacy suffered  as many new instruments had to  be  created  outside the legal  framework  of  the  European  Union.  

For the first time, a direct link has  thereby  been established between the outcome of the European Parliament elections and the proposal  of the President of the European Commission. 

This follows  long-standing  calls from  the European Parliament  echoed and repeated over  several decades. 

It  has the potential to insert  a very necessary additional dose of democratic legitimacy into the European decision-making process, 

Full text

The day we got EU parliamentarianism. Juncker, how many votes did you get in the last European elections?




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